Our Story

Inspired by St. Pope John Paul II’s 1990 message for World Day of Peace, in which he called for the need to upscale ecological awareness and to find fitting expression in concrete programs and initiatives, young Catholics from Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda and South Africa, drawn from and representing university chaplaincies and parish groups, joined up to respond to this invitation, and to set up the Africa-wide Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa (CYNESA) in January 2012. CYNESA is - the platform for all young Catholics in Africa, promoting responsible stewardship of the environment!

Education and Awareness Creation

CYNESA is preparing a youth toolkit on climate change that draws from scripture, Ignatian Spirituality, scientific research and Catholic social teaching.

Networking and Advocacy Training

We seek to establish and build relationships with like-minded partners, train young Catholics in advocacy on environmental sustainability, and link different initiatives on the continent.

Encouraging and Supporting Local Action Plans

We endeavor to encourage young people to act in their parishes, schools and within their youth movements by developing appropriate sustainable practices to conserve resources.

The existence of more than 500 Multilateral Environment Agreements, (local, national, regional and global legal frameworks) that govern and contain environmental challenges, has provided a robust resource in ensuring environmental responsibility and stewardship. Unfortunately, as the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, notes in his report, there are considerable “gaps in international environmental…

“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change” (Laudato Si’ 13). In living the appeal by Pope Francis I “to bring the whole human family together”,…

CYNESA took part in the first General Assembly of Members of the International Partnership on Religion and Development (PaRD) which was held from 24 -27 June at the Ecumenical Centre “Château de Bossey” in Switzerland. PaRD is an initiative of the Government of Germany that brings together governmental and intergovernmental…

On 21st August 2018 in Murara quarter/Goma, Maison des Jeunes Goma, together with the Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa (CYNESA), brought together holiday makers- mostly the youth, to participate in an anti-litter campaign during their holiday time. No one ignores the consequences related to waste (Diseases related to…

CYNESA's Mission is to offer the platform through which young Catholics across Africa, respond to the twin challenges of Environmental Degradation and Climate Change, from the perspective of Catholic social teaching on care for creation, paying attention to the most vulnerable.